How to Make Money in Real Estate Without Owning Property | Janae Mcgiboney’s Rental Arbitrage Strategy

Janae Mcgiboney (00:00)

Well, money was rolling in, everything was good until I actually ended up getting a notice on the door from code enforcement.

And I was notified that short-term rentals were not permitted in that specific area and it’s actually restricted by HOA. So, I was still learning at the time. I was a complete beginner. And this was a shock. I was like, okay, what do I do? I just invested thousands of dollars and put quite a bit of time into starting up my very first rental unit,

Joseph Crooms (01:59)

Hey everybody, welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. today I’m joined by someone, her name is Janae.

She is a dynamic young lady. She is making some moves. We’re gonna find out a little bit more about Janae, but we’re gonna let her say hello to everyone first. Janae, tell everybody hello.

Janae Mcgiboney (02:20)

Hi there. Hello everybody to those that are watching. Thanks for joining. And thank you so much, Joseph, for having me on the podcast. I’m so happy to be here.

Joseph Crooms (02:30)

The pleasure’s all mine and I’m so excited to get into it. So let’s do it. So first of all, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in?

Janae Mcgiboney (02:46)

Yeah, well what I do is I teach rental arbitrage. So essentially making money through real estate without owning it. And we focus on various different strategies, which include short-term rentals, midterm rentals, which is anything over 30 plus days, corporate stays, as well as shared living spaces and event spaces. so that’s something that we’re continuing to teach and just growing our community internationally.

Joseph Crooms (03:14)

What is the name of your business?

Janae Mcgiboney (03:15)

My business is Lux Academy.

Joseph Crooms (03:17)

All right. And where’s your market at? Where’s your primary market at?

Janae Mcgiboney (03:20)

Yeah, my primary market for my rental arbitrage business and my own personal units is in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, I do manage properties all throughout the United States and I have students now internationally. however, primarily most of them are in the United States.

Joseph Crooms (03:39)

That was great. So how long have you been doing this?

Janae Mcgiboney (03:41)

I have been in rental arbitrage now for about four years. so I started in 2022 with my very first rental arbitrage unit. It was a short-term rental Airbnb.

Joseph Crooms (03:54)

Okay, so now so you you’re using a new term for me, arbitrage.

Janae Mcgiboney (03:58)

Mm-hmm.

Joseph Crooms (03:59)

Explain that in layman’s terms. Tell me how are you making money?

Janae Mcgiboney (04:03)

Yeah, so essentially you are the middleman, right? So instead of waiting to have 20% saved up, waiting until your finances, credit, and taxes are perfectly positioned in order to invest and begin earning money, you instead reach out to a property owner or manager and you’re simply just gonna ask them for permission to rent their property and then re rent it out.

Oftentimes on short-term basis under 30 days. Or like I said, there’s various other strategies depending on your market and the local laws, regulations, or the types of clients you’re looking to accommodate. You could do for any set period of time. But how you make money is essentially the rent expenses and then what you earn on a monthly basis, the difference between the two, that spread is the profit that you keep at the end of each month.

Joseph Crooms (04:58)

So let me ask you this. Yeah, I got you. So you’ve been doing this for four years. Over the last year, how what is your monthly revenue?

Janae Mcgiboney (05:07)

Yeah, that’s a great question. So on average we’re bringing in about twenty five to forty five thousand dollars a month, specifically with the rental arbitrage units. and of course, like the coaching or other businesses are completely separate.

Joseph Crooms (05:22)

Why did you get into the coaching?

Janae Mcgiboney (05:23)

I got into coaching because I’m passionate about making a difference. Like I’ve always wanted to make an impact. I wanna uplift. I wanna inspire and I wanna educate other people. And I want people to know, like, if I’m able to do it, you’re able to do it too. I did not start in the perfect position. And through sharing my journey, I found that a lot of people were inspired. They wanted to learn how to do the same thing and

I had the experience and the knowledge to be able to do so. so really I think it’s just my mission to just make an impact and spread the information and then, provide the support along the way.

Joseph Crooms (05:58)

What caught my attention about the way you were able to position your business and and develop your concept. So you’re doing like 25,000 a month, right? How long have you been at that level?

Janae Mcgiboney (06:10)

I would say like the last year about. at least like the last year, and it’s just continuing to grow and scale honestly like every month. so we’re continuing to grow our portfolio. But yeah, it started off like just getting started. I was starting off profiting about a thousand to two thousand dollars a month. And then I just continued to reinvest the profits and it just compounded over time as I continued to scale with more units.

Joseph Crooms (06:35)

Are you primary in the Los Angeles area? and why that area, why is that area so profitable?

Janae Mcgiboney (07:29)

Yeah, so I am primarily focused in the Las Vegas area for my rental arbitrage units. And that’s just where I started, right? I started my own backyard and initially started off with short-term rentals. And like I said, I ended up actually learning and now teaching various other strategies aside from the traditional short-term rentals. So also doing like the midterm rentals, event spaces, all that good stuff.

Really, because there’s strict ordinances and regulations here in Las Vegas. but just because there’s strict regulations, it doesn’t mean that it’s difficult to make money, right? That means that the demand is there. There’s people who are coming in from all over the world at all times. so it’s great. I love it here. there’s constantly people who you’re able to accommodate and

Create a space for them to make memories and you get to make money every day without checking into clocking into a job, so it’s nice.

Joseph Crooms (08:22)

I like how you threw your hair back then say yeah and without clocking into a job. So are you I love it today. Janae, tell me this. tell me how you will rent like you talked about co rentals also, did you not? me about those.

Janae Mcgiboney (08:35)

So shared

living spaces. So it’s basically PadSplit or shared living. Essentially, you have a large home and you’re renting out per room. And then the tenants share the common spaces like the living room, the shared bathroom spaces, the kitchen, yard, etc. And traditionally, let’s say

With a traditional rental, let’s say a four bedroom, three bathroom, just for example, right? you’re probably gonna be getting around twenty five hundred, right? But instead, that’s just for like a traditional long term rental. Instead, if you’re renting per room, on average, I mean, you could be renting them out an average of like a thousand dollars per room on a monthly basis. So you’re then you’re like almost doubling your potential revenue.

for that specific property, simply just by renting out the rooms instead of the entire house.

Joseph Crooms (09:27)

Will the landlord still be living there?

Janae Mcgiboney (09:29)

No. so I the landlord does not live at any of the properties. Or for instance, like with what I do, I do not live at any of the properties that I personally manage. however, I actually appoint a house manager or director, someone essentially that’s just gonna be like eyes and ears that I feel like is a responsible tenant and just could help maintain the integrity of the nature of the home. other than that, just like

routine check ins, inspections. We do have regular cleanings inside of the home as well, so they’re professionally managed and maintained. That way everything, stays in order and is always ready to accommodate a new tenant if one moves out. It’s a pretty

Joseph Crooms (10:09)

How do you market it? How do you market?

Janae Mcgiboney (10:11)

Yeah, great question. So I market PadSplit or shared living on various different platforms. Some are also my own independent platforms as well. So I have like my own website where people could come and do direct bookings. we also have word of mouth, which is a great thing. Another thing is like

using platforms that already exist where people are going to be looking for these types of accommodations. So Furnished Finder is a great one, PadSplit is another good one, or Facebook Marketplace I actually found that was really useful and had consistent clients coming in.

Joseph Crooms (10:51)

What’s been the key to keeping your business running smooth?

Janae Mcgiboney (10:54)

That’s another good question. So the key to keeping my business running smoothly, honestly, I would just say it’s gonna be systems of operations. making sure that everything is organized, having as many things automated as possible, doing like standard routine checkups on your business and just seeing like, are there any leaks? Is there any room for improvement? And taking feedback as a way just to come,

continuously become better as a business and as a provider.

Joseph Crooms (11:23)

Are you a sole proprietor or do you have partners?

Janae Mcgiboney (11:25)

no, I am a registered LLC, but I am the only member of that specific LLC. However, I have my partner. we operate several different businesses together and joint owners.

Joseph Crooms (11:38)

Okay. now every operator I know had a moment when things got real. Maybe a deal that was going sideways or time they had to pivot fast.

Janae Mcgiboney (11:47)

Yeah.

Joseph Crooms (11:47)

You mind sharing one of those with us?

Janae Mcgiboney (12:30)

Yeah, I have plenty. Huh, let’s see. Well, I mean, we could definitely, like I had mentioned, when I had to pivot to a different strategy. So initially, when I first got started with rental arbitrage and I was super excited, I had gotten my first property and I was doing short term rentals, Airbnb. Well, money was rolling in, everything was good until I actually ended up getting a notice on the door from code enforcement.

And I was notified that short-term rentals were not permitted in that specific area and it’s actually restricted by HOA. So, I was still learning at the time. I was a complete beginner. And this was a shock. I was like, okay, what do I do? I just invested thousands of dollars and put quite a bit of time into starting up my very first rental unit, right? I had a little bit of savings and I was really just like jumping in on just like risk and hopes,

But so what I had to do is I had to pivot and I had to do it quick. So I ended up actually doing some additional research and just trying to figure out how else I can monetize this property that I’m already locked into. and that’s when I ended up being introduced to midterm rentals and the other strategies. But I immediately pivoted to 30 plus day midterm rentals. I went on Furnished Finder, listed the property.

And I found a midterm tenant. It was actually a military family that was coming in and needed a place to stay for six months. so that was great. And then it was a pretty smooth transfer from there, just unlisted it from Airbnb, relisted it to be marketed through Furnished Finder, secured a tenant, and then it was just like standard rent. So you just collect the rent every single month, which allowed for me to

be within the ordinances and just like fully legal at that point, still making money and I didn’t lose out on my investment because otherwise I would have been screwed.

Joseph Crooms (14:24)

It sounds like you have really capitalized on midterm rentals. Explain that to me.

Janae Mcgiboney (14:30)

Yeah. So midterm rentals is essentially anything over 30 plus days. So oftentimes you’re either going to see tenants that are just staying month to month, or you may have tenants that are going to, rent out with you for a set duration of time, three, six, or nine months, whatever it may be. it just provides them the flexibility.

And it’s easily attainable, oftentimes you’re going to be you’re actually going to be accommodating people like business professionals, medical faculty, military, or even like traveling families or insurance relocations where something may have happened in someone’s home when they were misplaced and needed temporary solution. So you’re actually working with companies that reposition and place people in your home and they pay you directly.

so yeah, there’s lots of ways to capitalize on that. And like I said, like you’re able to bypass all the different regulations in a lot of communities where those short-term rentals are restricted and still bring in a profit of, an average of $1,000 to even $3,000 a month in profit per property. While you get to like sit back, it’s way less turnover. You don’t have those consistent cleanings, check-in, checkouts. it’s pretty smooth. So I’ve definitely

Like you said, capitalized on that and really just took advantage of those opportunities. And then now I take joy in being able to teach people how to do that same thing when people feel like their back is against the wall. I’m like, but there’s more.

Joseph Crooms (16:00)

Okay.

Let me ask you this question. What is it that’s unique about Las Vegas that’s making all of this happen?

Janae Mcgiboney (16:07)

Hmm. Well, I think there is first, I think there’s a lot of very unique places and great places to operate this business and still be very successful. However, I just happen to be placed in Las Vegas when getting started and just continue to grow and scale from there. So first off, the accessibility, it’s super easy to manage, just have feet on the ground, and that’s one of the benefits.

Another thing is pe like I said, people are literally traveling from all over the world. From anywhere in the world, coming to Las Vegas to stay for any set period of time. And oftentimes they don’t want to go to the Strip and the hotels, but they want somewhere close by where their family or friends can be accommodated somewhere comfortable. so yeah, I mean there’s constant demand. As long as you’re sticking out from the competition, you’re providing something different.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be successful.

Joseph Crooms (16:59)

Well, Janae, you are definitely providing something different and you are you’re not just sticking out, you’re you got a whole ledge out there. So noticing you. Thank you for sharing that.

Janae Mcgiboney (17:09)

Yeah, of course.

Joseph Crooms (17:09)

We’re getting near the end. That’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about. And honestly, what separates the folks who are just dabbling from the ones who stay in it for long term. Real quick, let me ask you this: what are you focus solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal?

Janae Mcgiboney (17:23)

My biggest focus right now is scaling my coaching because for me, I just want to make a bigger impact. I’ve already done the thing and everything’s going great. And I just want to continue to help more people. Like I said, I want to uplift, I want to inspire, I want to impact other people in a positive way. And I truly do believe that I have information that can be that.

door, that opens up an opportunity to change somebody’s life if they, take it and they apply it. so yeah, I take pride in that. And that’s like my pride and joy right now. I’m super, excited about it because we’re really just getting started. The ball is getting rolling. We’re getting momentum. Our students are seeing results and I just can’t wait for what’s to come within this next one to two years.

Joseph Crooms (18:07)

Janae, one more question and then we’re gonna ask people how to tell people how to get in touch with you. What’s been the biggest difference to you on building relationships?

Janae Mcgiboney (18:16)

Mm.

The biggest difference, man.

That is that’s actually a great question. I think relationships are very important, especially because when I had first when I was first starting my business and I was constantly just like focused on the next, the next big thing, like the next goal. At some point in time, when you’re so focused on achieving those goals, you can kind of isolate yourself and take yourself away from your community.

But the thing is, I have come to realize that there is so much strength and so much power in community. When there’s a unity, when you come together, you could bounce, ideas off of one another. You could support and uplift one another. And it oftentimes, like if you’re surrounded around the right types of people, you pour into each other, right? So you never know how you connecting with someone can change their life or how they could change yours simply just by

Being open by connecting, by being vulnerable, and just focusing on building real, genuine relationships because you’re not always going to get something from it right away, but like five, 10 years down the line, you never know who you’re gonna call up, who you might be able to close a deal with, or who’s gonna be calling you, asking you to coach them, or vice versa, right? so yeah, relationships are everything. Keep them close and

I would say just honor them, cherish them, and water them for sure.

Joseph Crooms (19:36)

Thank you, Janae. So before you can’t fake that, relationships are so important. Thank you for sharing as to our listening audience. And you’ve just been fantastic. So all right, before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, or to make or collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way? And please give us give us a spiel for both of your businesses, okay?

Janae Mcgiboney (19:57)

Yeah, absolutely. So my main page is going to be Janae Mcgiboney. That’s J-A-N-A-E, M-C-G-I-B-O-N-E-Y, The Womanaire, and that is across the board on Instagram and Facebook. there you will also see where you can connect with me to join my free school community where I teach people all the gems on how to make money in real estate without owning it. So the

Free school community is in my bio or you could just reach out to me. If anyone wants to partner with me, collaborate, connect, has any questions, feel free to reach out. My DMs are open and I’m always looking to connect.

Joseph Crooms (20:37)

One more time. Give it this one more time. It’s so it’s so important. I want the again.

Janae Mcgiboney (20:41)

Yes, absolutely.

Janae Mcgiboney, The Womanaire, is where you will find me. And again, my program is Lux Academy. So just look up Janae Mcgiboney. You’ll find The Womanaire and the Lux Academy link will be there. And I look forward to seeing you all.

Joseph Crooms (21:00)

Wow. Perfect. Well, Janae, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, your philosophy, your perspective, your movement, and your perseverance. we need more people in this space who are doing that the right way. Thanks again for being here.

Janae Mcgiboney (21:15)

Thank you so much for having me. It’s truly been such a pleasure. It was so great meeting you and speaking today.

Joseph Crooms (21:21)

Thank you. So and for those of you tuning in, I know you are going to get in touch with Janae. I’m not going to set up her last name. So I’m smarter than that. But she know I’m cool. So but I know you got value from this. Make sure you tune into her. Make sure you subscribe to our station. We got more conversations coming up with operators just like Janae, who are out there building real businesses, but more than that, helping real people and communities. So we’re going to see you on the next episode.

Tell them everybody you’re gonna talk to them soon.

Janae Mcgiboney (21:49)

Y’all, I’ll talk to you guys soon. It was so nice having you guys. Thanks for listening. We’ll talk soon. See you there on my link.

Joseph Crooms (21:57)

All right. So we’re gonna see you on the next episode of Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Janae Mcgiboney (22:02)

Let’s go.